Colorado beer calendar: Odell's Small Batch kicks off festival season

It's beer festival season and the fiestas -- from the high country to the plains -- are going to come fast. The first two kick off this Memorial Day weekend, but they'll be followed by new ones almost every weekend this summer. Enjoy -- and keep some Advil around.

A-Basin Festival of the Brewpubs

Wednesday, May 23

Every Wednesday this month, the Rackhouse Pub has tapped a beer from Avery Brewing during "Sour Hour," from 4 to 6 p.m. Today's the last one. Anyone in attendance can enter to win a pair of tickets to Avery's 2012 Boulder SourFest, which takes place June 2 and is SOLD OUT. (Even better, transportation will be provided from the Rackhouse to the festival and back.) Maharaja is the beer of choice today.

Saturday, May 26

Odell Brewing hosts annual Small Batch Festival today in Fort Collins from 3 to 7 p.m. with 5,000 of its closest friends. There will be food on hand, live music from Musketeer Gripweed, Constitution, and Justin Roth, and beer of course. Lots of it. Examples include: Wooden Elephant, an award-winning oak aged IPA; Mash of the Titan, a chocolate coffee stout; Footloose, a golden sour aged with brettanomyces and lactobacillus; and Kiwi IPA, brewed with three kinds of New Zealand-grown hops. Find out more at Odell's web site.

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse in Loveland will host its own version of Maifest today, "a traditional German festival that celebrates the reawakening of spring after winter's cold darkness." The family friendly event, from noon to 10 p.m., includes games and activities for the kids, giveaways and door prizes, food -- including Bedrock BBQ, The Daily Dawg, and pretzels from Cramer's Handmade Bread Company -- and music by folk performer Steve Mancell. Grimm will also debut Little Farmer, a rich, malty maibock.

Wit's End Brewing will host the debut of Marco's Coal Fired Pizza's new mobile oven today from 2 to 8 p.m. Marco's owner Mark Dym will be on hand, as will brewery owner Scott Witsoe, to talk about pizza, beer and the passion for two of life's greatest joys.

AC Golden Brewing will release two of its three highly-anticipated Hidden Barrel Collection sour beers today, exclusively at Mile High Wine & Spirits in Lakewood. The two beers were each made with more than one hundred pounds of fruit, then aged for ten months in oak barrels and fermented with brettanomyces yeast and souring agents. The first, Peche, is made with Colorado-grown peaches, while the second, Apricot, is made with the fruit of the same name. The beers (they cost $21.99 for a 750 ml bottle) go on sale at 9 a.m. and are limited to two of each per customer. Mile High will offer free tastings beginning at 3 p.m.; AC Golden brewer Troy Casey will be on hand to answer questions.

Copper Kettle will gets its sunshine on this weekend with the re-release of its Summer Ale, an light golden brew made with ground coriander and orange peel, and music from the Rorey Carroll Band, an alternative country/bluegrass group. The music starts outside under a tent at 6 p.m. Uber Sausage will be in the house as well.

Sunday, May 27

Arapahoe Basin hosts its 11th annual Festival of the Brewpubs today showcasing beers from Backcountry, Breckenridge, Dillon Dam, Pug Ryan's, Avery, Odell and Tommyknocker breweries. For $25, you get a fourteen-ounce plastic souvenir mug and unlimited tastings from noon to 4 p.m. There will also be smoked pulled pork and beef sliders on the grill and live music starting at 1 p.m.